After strong sales and price increases in March, the housing market in Edmonton in April slowed down considerably. At a time when sales and prices are typically steadily rising, sales of single family homes were not typical. In April, single family home sales were about the same as March, and April 2009.
There were 452 condo sales in April compared to 376 in March and 414 last April. With interest rates on the rise we believe many first time buyers have responded, buying affordable condos and taking advantage of historically low mortgage rates while they're still available. At this time of year we also see an increase in the number parents buying condos for their children to stay in while at the U of A.
The average sale price of single family homes dropped from $395621 in March to $388392 in April but is still significantly higher than last April's $355440 and well below the peak price of $449095 in May 2007. Condos on the other hand only dropped slightly from March ($251263) to $248505. While we don't have the final inventory numbers yet it is safe to say if sales are increasing and prices decreasing inventory should be up substantially in April.
The average price per square foot of single family homes dropped $2 to $269 while condos increased from $231 to $236:
So it's safe to say that condos performed better than single family homes in April, for the first time in quite a while. Meanwhile home builders in Edmonton continue to ramp up construction of single family homes (according to a report from CMHC yesterday single family construction in Edmonton is nearly 5 times that of last year). Perhaps we will see them slow down in coming months. As always, when the final numbers are released by the REALTORS® Association of Edmonton we'll have a full report here (should be on Tuesday).
Hi Sheldon and Sara,
I’ve been coming to this since I moved to Edmonton in 2007 and I’m a big fan. I have two questions that I’m hoping you or your readers can answer:
I need a bit of clarification on the peak number (Single Family Dwelling) on the May 1 post($449,095 – May 2007). Is that for the city of Edmonton only (not including surrounding suburbs?). The number I remember for peak in May 2007 is $426,028.
I wanted to check the number against EREB’s stats, but they have removed their 2007 market updates and 2007 stats for each type of house sold. Which leads me to my second question: EREB shows that the average price for March 2010 (all types) is $375,758. The average price for all types for the peak (May 2007) is $354,544. I’m just wondering how we can be sitting $20,000 above the peak. Is there a mistake on EREB’s site?
Here is the link (it’s on page 12):
http://www.ereb.com/pdf/QuarterlyStats.pdf
Hi BC and thanks for reading. The numbers I published on Saturday are for Edmonton only. We have to wait until EREB releases the official numbers before we can draw comparisons on their stats.
Why do the numbers (avg price for single family) for April differ from that of Bob Truman?
I don’t know… my first thought is typo – I just went and double checked and the average showing in our database is $388k so maybe Bob made a typo? He also has a different number for March so perhaps he is using slightly different criteria? I’m not sure to be honest.